Maxine Waters

In the midst of the current rental housing crisis that is causing far too many American households to pay unaffordable rent levels, federal rental assistance programs are essential to helping low income households afford their rent as well as other basic
necessities. We invite you to join us in sending a letter to appropriators asking them to support robust funding levels for key rental assistance programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Specifically, this letter requests the following funding provisions:

Fully fund the Public Housing Operating Fund at 100 percent of estimated need, in order to address the estimated annual operating costs.

Appropriate at least $5 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund, which would cover the estimated annual maintenance needs of the public housing stock plus additional funding to address a portion of the backlog of capital repairs.

Fully fund the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program to renew all vouchers currently in use;

Fully fund the Voucher Operations Fund (also known as the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Fee) at 100 percent of estimated need in order to ensure that PHAs can adequately meet tenants needs, including ensuring units are safe and decent

Fully fund Section 202 to ensure that there are sufficient funds to renew all 202 expiring PRAC contracts and provide an additional $600 million for new construction of 202 units to keep up with the increasing need for these units.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these requests. The deadline to sign on is COB March 11th. Please contact Elayne Weiss with Chairwoman Waters atElayne.Weiss@mail.house.gov or Rico Doss with Subcommittee Chairman William Lacy Clay atDarrell.Doss@mail.house.gov with any questions about this letter.